LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Jerry Moss, a legend in the music business who co-founded A&M Records with Herb Alpert, has died at the age of 88.
According to a statement issued by his family, Moss, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2006 with Alpert, died on Wednesday, August 16, at his home in the Bel Air neighbourhood of Los Angeles.
How did Jerry Moss die?
Moss' wife, Tina, reportedly said that he died due to natural causes. Her statement read, "They truly don't make them like him anymore and we will miss conversations with him about everything under the sun, the twinkle in his eyes as he approached every moment ready for the next adventure," per the Daily Mail.
What poplular labels did Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss own?
Alpert and Moss oversaw one of the music industry's most prosperous independent labels for more than 25 years, delivering hugely popular albums as Alpert's 'Whipped Cream' & Other Delights', Carole King's 'Tapestry,' and Peter Frampton's 'Frampton Comes Alive!'
Moss told the archive and resource centre, Artist House Music, in 2007, "Every once in a while a record would come through us and Herbie would look at me and say, "What did we do to deserve this, that this amazing thing is going to come out on our label?"
Moss' musical connections led to a thriving horse racing business, which he co-owned with his ex-wife, Ann Holbrook.
Nate Duroff, a record producer, loaned Alpert and Moss $35,000 in 1962 to print 350,000 copies of Alpert's instrumental 'The Lonely Bull', the label's first significant hit. Duroff persuaded Moss to invest in horses a decade later.
In 2005, Moss' horse Giacomo, named after the son of A&M musician Sting, won the Kentucky Derby. Zenyatta, named after the Police song 'Zenyatta Mondatta', finished second in 2008 and 2009 before winning in 2010.
Moss named another winning horse, 'Set Them Free', after a hit tune by Sting. He made one of his final public appearances in January when he was honoured at the Mark Taper Forum in downtown Los Angeles with a tribute concert.
Frampton, Amy Grant and Dionne Warwick, who was not an A&M artist but had known Moss since the early '60s when he helped promote her songs, performed.
Rita Coolidge said at the event, "Herb was the artist and Jerry had the vision. It just changed the face of the record industry. Certainly A&M made such a difference and it's where everybody wanted to be."
Who is Jerry Moss survied by?
Moss' is survived by Tina and his three children. A New York City native and English major at Brooklyn College, he had wanted to work in show business since he was in his twenties and saw how much fun the entertainment industry clients seemed to be having.
Moss and Alpert founded Carnival Records with a $100 investment each and had a hit, 'Tell It to the Birds,' an Alpert song released under the name of his son, Dore Alpert.
After discovering that another company was named Carnival too, Alpert and Moss renamed their company A&M, turning Alpert's garage into an office and designing the iconic logo with the trumpet across the bottom.
In 2010, Moss told The New York Times, "We wanted people to be happy. You can't force people to do a certain kind of music. They make their best music when they are doing what they want to do, not what we want them to do."
